Colombia History

Pre 20th Century

Pre-Columbian cultures existed in scattered pockets of the Andean region and on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Among the most outstanding were the Tayrona, Sinú, Muisca, Quimbaya, Tierradentro and San Agustín. Many of the tribes produced accomplished goldwork and pottery, and some left behind burial chambers and rock paintings which have helped anthropologists piece together their cultures.

Alonso de Ojeda, a companion of Christopher Columbus, landed on the Guajira Peninsula in 1499. The wealth of the local Indians promulgated the myth of El Dorado, and the shores of present-day Colombia became the target of numerous Spanish expeditions. Though they initially tolerated the Spaniards, the Indians rebelled when the colonists tried to enslave them and confiscate their lands. However, it wasn't long before much of the country had been conquered by the Spanish, and a number of towns, including Cartagena (founded in 1533), were prospering. In 1544, the country was incorporated into the viceroyalty of Peru, where it remained until 1739 when it became a part of New Granada (comprising the territories of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama).

Along with slavery, the Spanish monopoly over commerce, taxes and duty slowly gave rise to protest, particularly towards the end of the 18th century. During this period, the first stirrings of national autonomy occurred. It wasn't until 1819, however, that the Venezuelan liberator Simón Bolívar and his army appeared and independence was achieved. Ten years of uneasy confederation with Venezuela and Ecuador followed in the form of Gran Colombia, until regional differences between the three finally undermined the union.

Political currents born in the independence struggle were formalized in 1849 when two parties (dominated by creole elites) were established: the Conservatives (with centralist tendencies) and the Liberals (with federalist leanings). The parties divided the nation into partisan camps, eventually heralding insurrection, civil chaos and war. In the course of the 19th century, the country experienced no less than 50 insurrections and eight civil wars, culminating in the bloody War of a Thousand Days in 1899.

Modern

The struggle between the Conservatives and the Liberals broke out again in 1948 with La Violencia, the most destructive of Colombia's civil wars in which nearly 300,000 people died. It soon developed revolutionary overtones and both parties decided to support a military coup to retain power. The coup, led by General Gustavo Rojas in 1953, was shortlived, falling in 1957 when the two parties (now the National Front) agreed to share power for the next 16 years.

The National Front collapsed in 1974 when Liberal President Alfonso López Michelsen was elected, but a modified version of the two-party system continued for another 17 years. Meanwhile, the political climate encouraged the emergence of left-wing guerrilla groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the April 19 Movement (M19), who successfully undermined government power.

Another threat was the setting of paramilitary death squads against any group that opposed the drug cartels in Medellín and Cali and by 1990, escalating violence threatened to bring the country to a standstill. In 1991, a new constitution strengthened government control. In June of that year, Pablo Escobar, head of the Medellín cocaine cartel and alleged mastermind of the terror campaign, surrendered. He escaped a year later, but was located and killed in December 1993.

Drug trafficking continues to grow (courtesy of the pragmatic Cali cartel), bringing in an estimated six billion US dollars a year. The arrest of Cali cartel leader Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela in June 1995 was a feather in the government's cap, but did little to alter the dynamics of the drug trade. Then-president, Ernesto Samper, spent much of his last years in office refuting allegations that drug money financed his election campaign. Samper's Liberal Party succesor, Horacio Serpa, lost the 1998 election to independent conservative Andres Pastrana, who had previously blown the whistle on Samper's Cali connections.

Recent

In May 2002, moderate-right independent Álvaro Uribe was elected president. A fierce adversary of the guerrillas, the war intensified in his first few months. In a 2003 security plan, he vowed to reinforce Colombia's security and eradicate drug crops. His fight, however, is far from over - traffickers have found new routes out of Colombia and right-wing paramilitaries are gaining a stronger foothold in urban areas. Colombia is also home to 3 million internally displaced people.

The Constitutional Court amended laws so Uribe could stand for re-election in 2006. As expected, he was re-elected.

Colombia gets about 740 million US dollars a year from Uncle Sam. The US has agreed to help demobilize former members of groups on the US State Department's terrorism list. It is also behind an aid package to spray coca fields and fight drug trafficking. However, farmers are simply moving to other areas to cultivate and, lately, even planting coca in national parks where laws prevent spraying.